The Police & Crime Plan is the focus of our work and provides the direction and focus for Dorset Police based on feedback from the public. While it is a 4 year plan, it is refreshed annually to ensure we continue to meet the needs of residents.

We're committed to involving as many people as possible in our work. Here you can find more information about volunteering, our approach to community engagement as well as how you can report your concerns and take part in consultations.

Keep up to date with what the Police & Crime Commissioner is doing to make Dorset a safer county. Here you can find news articles and blogs along with videos, images and audio in our multimedia section along with our quarterly newsletters.

Our events calendar highlights all the opportunities Dorset residents, visitors, businesses and victims of crime can interact with the PCC and his team at shows, public meetings, forums and community days.

Working with other organisations in partnership is vital to continue our commitment to making Dorset safer and feel safer. We award grants and funding for projects and initiatives that meet this objective.

Here you can find all of the statutory information we publish as a public sector organisation as well as instructions on how to submit a Freedom of Information request and disclosure log of previous requests.

Calling all volunteers - help us hold the police to account

PEOPLE who live or work in Dorset and want to help hold the police to account are being invited to come forward as volunteers.

Martyn Underhill, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, is calling for a wide range of people from across the county to sit on a series of Independent Scrutiny Panels.

The panels, which are held four times a year, enable the PCC to look into the work of Dorset Police and provide recommendations for how they can improve their service.

Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill said: “These independent panels provide an absolutely vital job of assisting me to hold the Chief Constable to account and come up with suggestions for how they can do things better.

“I’m looking for as wide a group of people as possible, and I’m particularly keen for younger people and those from different ethnic backgrounds to get involved and have their voices heard.”

People are now needed to sit on four existing panels, each of which looks at a specific area such as how Dorset Police uses its stop and search powers; how the police interact with the public; how officers use force when responding to incidents and how they use out of court disposals such as cautions and warnings.

Volunteers are also being sought for a new panel being set up to look into hate crime in Dorset.

Martyn Underhill added: “We’re looking for people who are good communicators, have great team working skills and who have integrity – but most of all who care about what’s happening in Dorset and want to work with me to help improve our police service.”

Anyone who sits on a panel must be 18 or over, be an English speaker, have been resident in the UK for more than three years and currently live or work in Dorset.